64 EPPING FOREST.
of this part of the building left it in the open
air, and the stone which marked the spot was
removed by depredators. It is said that in the
reign of Queen Elizabeth, a gardener digging
came upon the stone coffin itself, which being
opened the bones were discovered, but crumbled
to dust on exposure to the air. The monks for
many generations continued to exercise the powers
and privileges granted to them, with varying for-
tunes, dependent on the favour or the contrary, of
kings, whose resort this monastery frequently was.
Their influence was no doubt in many ways bene-
ficent, and it is probable that we enjoy even at the
present time some of the fruits of their arbitrary
power. It was to the special permission to en-
close, referred to on p. 105, and to the fore-
sight often shown by the religious orders, that we
probably owe the preservation as timber trees of
the fine groves of beeches in the Forest, known
as Monk Wood and High Beach Grove. Their
relations with the surrounding people were not
always of the most friendly character. Then, as
now, rights of pasturage caused differences of
opinion, though the following extract seems to
show that they were not always so successfully
championed as at the present day. Farmer, the
historian, relates how, " when Simon de Seham
was abbot, in the 30th Henry. III. (1245), a dispute
arose between the abbot and the townsmen of
Waltham about the common lands. The men of
Waltham came into the marsh, which the abbot
and his convent formerly enjoyed as several to
themselves, and killed four mares, worth forty
shillings sterling at least, and drove away all the
rest; the abbot was politely pleased for the pre-